Non-Chemical Length of time to melt a gold engagement ring?

[4metals]

He stoked the fire in his forge higher, pulled out a dark gray, ceramic-looking beaker, and dropped her ring inside

Actually he would be pulling out what they referred to as a flask back then and it would be glowing bright red, as it is the same temperature as the forge. So you wouldn't know it was dark grey.

And the diamond would be in pretty poor shape after the high heat and the quick water quench. Classically they would clip off the prongs retaining the diamond and it would fall free.

And he wouldn't plunge the mold into a bucket of water just the solidified gold.

 

[jason_recliner]

One would take the gold from the mold before dropping it into the cold.

 

[rickbb]

He definitely would remove the stone first and then after the poured gold in the mold became solid, (just a few seconds is all that would take), then dump the still hot bead out of the mold into water then. It'd still be very hot, enough to steam like crazy.

 

[g_axelsson]

A 4 gram button doesn't steam like crazy, it says pffft and then it's cool.

Göran

 

[rickbb]

Depends on how big a container of water you put it in. A big bucket yes your right pfft is all. Small cup, more steam.

But either way no cloud of steam like she wrote about.

 

[g_axelsson]

It will be a small pffft in a small cup also, it's all down to the amount of energy stored in the hot gold. 3-4 grams can't produce a lot of steam.

Göran

 

[4metals]

This is all sounding very technical and quite specific.......but once you throw in the time travel piece, a pffft or a hisssssss doesn't really make much difference does it?

 

[Geo]

After all, it is fiction. You could have them melt it with dragons breath.

 

[patnor1011]

After all, it is fiction. You could have them melt it with dragons breath.

lol
or he could have used philosopher stone and turn crucible and tongs to gold along with ring.

 

[nickvc]

Angela if you want historical accuracy don't have the diamond as a modern brilliant cut, ie a round cut many faceted stone.
In antiquity diamonds were cleaned and polished due to the difficulty, their hardness, in cutting them so the stones were the same shapes that nature produced them in with a little shaping and polishing to increase their lustre.
Perhaps the first cut stones were cushion cut, that we would call cut anyway, but I think even those didn't arrive till the 18/19 th centuries.


Edited for accuracy.

 

[AngelaQ]

Angela if you want historical accuracy don't have the diamond as a modern brilliant cut, ie a round cut many faceted stone.
In antiquity diamonds were cleaned and polished due to the difficulty, their hardness, in cutting them so the stones were the same shapes that nature produced them in with a little shaping and polishing to increase their lustre.
Perhaps the first cut stones were cushion cut, that we would call cut anyway, but I think even those didn't arrive till the 18/19 th centuries.


Edited for accuracy.

True, except this is a modern ring that traveled with her back into time. I didn't include this part, as it didn't have to do with melting, but the rest of that last paragraph actually had the blacksmith noting its unusual cut:

Shortly, he handed Katy a piece of wool with a lump of gold no bigger than a green pea on steroids and her diamond on top. “I’ve never seen such a curiously cut stone. Where did you acquire it?”
“Er. In France.” She tied the cloth into a knot and put the bundle into her money pouch.

 

[AngelaQ]

Thank you guys for helping me get the details right! It's now back from the proofreaders, and about to be formatted for publishing...